Health Services

BAU wants students to stay healthy and happy throughout their time with us and beyond. To this end, we offer students both health and wellness and counseling services. It is important for everyone to be proactive about maintaining a healthy lifestyle, for the sake of achieving both short- and long-term successes. At BAU, we recognize that maintaining a healthy lifestyle requires attention to both physical fitness and mental well-being. Our services respond to student needs on these two levels.

Health and Wellness

Healthy lifestyle guidance and classes are organized by the Student Government Association and are offered through the Student Services Department. Students can participate in exercise, nutrition, time management, stress relief, and success planning workshops, focus groups, and classes. Monthly “Chai and Chat” sessions offer a social venue for students to connect over important matters.

The mission of BAU’s health and wellness program is to encourage students, faculty and staff to adopt and maintain healthy lifestyle behaviors and to improve their health, well-being and quality of life.

Counseling

BAU’s counseling department provides students support for any personal challenges they may face during their studies–whether they derive from stresses from coursework, the challenges of adapting to a new environment, or other circumstances.

Ebony N. Lea, LICSW has over 12 years of experience helping children, adults and families in the D.C. area. As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, she has been a counselor, clinical program staff supervisor, and a front-line advocate for youth and mental health. Ms. Lea graduated from the University of Maryland Baltimore, receiving a Master’s Degree in Social Work with a dual concentration in nonprofit management and clinical practice.

Sharif Salim, a former Middle School Principal in Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS), has decades of experience mentoring and counseling young people. Growing up Washington, D.C. in the 1950s, Sharif became a professional boxer and then manager of 12 World Boxing Champions. An associate of Muhammad Ali, he was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 2014 as a contributor to the sport. He currently works as Director of Community Relations at the Diyanet Center of America (https://diyanetamerica.org/), where he builds innovative connections between that organization and the D.C. community. Sharif is a kind, compassionate man and a humble Muslim.

If any student needs specialized, professional mental health services, our counselors refer them to qualified, licensed specialists drawn from a network of organizations developed by BAU for the specific purpose of meeting its students’ mental health needs.